Digital River Alternatives for 2024 -

Sep 24, 2024

There's an abundance of Digital River alternatives on the market, and you may not be aware of what makes one particular one distinguish themselves from others.

It's important to know the fact that Digital River is a merchant of record (MoR), which means that some payment providers might not offer the type of complete features you're accustomed to when using an MoR.

In this post this post, we will go over:

The Reasons to Choose HTML0 as the Most Effective Digital River Alternative Is a Merchant of Record

If you're familiar with Digital River but aren't familiar with the concept of "merchant of record" you might not be well-versed in the numerous benefits come with using one.

Let's review the MoR concept and why is it important for your business is currently using one to earn money for your SaaS software, program, or any other digital item -You should make sure you keep using one.

 What Is a Merchant of Record?

Merchant of Record (MoR) is the entity that actually sells the goods and services to customers. Businesses can act as their own MoR, but many opt to outsource that responsibility to a company such as Digital River or to sell products or services on behalf of their company.

The MoR takes on the liability of SaaS transactions for you, meaning they handle everything from the processing of payments to chargeback management, to collection and remittance of taxes as well as the compliance of local legislation and rules. Since the MoR is liable for issues related to these fields, they handle resolving those issues so there is no need to.

Digital-commerce-reliant businesses that utilize an MoR can focus less on ecommerce and more on making great software, SaaS, video games, mobile games, or other digital goods.

What Makes a Merchant of Record Different From payment Service Service Providers ?

Payment service providers (PSPs) as well as MoRs are an intermediary between companies that wish to sell their product, and the specialized systems and services needed on the back end to make those transactions happen. Those specialized networks and services may include payment gateways, processors for payment, merchant accounts that take credit or debit cards, and many more.

PSPs generally also have an e-commerce system and/or integration capability (such such as APIs plugins or special integrations.) to connect their payment system or check-out with your online store or your website, though the options will vary.

But, payment service providers generally fall short of managing risk, handling taxes as well as assisting in chargebacks. When regulations and rules change within any of the regions or countries where you sell your products, you'll be accountable for keeping the latest on these changes, and updating your PSP procedures and your checkout to reflect those changes.

Some PSPs might provide upgradeable payment options for their products to make them more similar to what an MoR automatically provides, however these are typically bolt-on functions that come with upgrade fees. For example, Stripe offers a fraud-prevention upgrade called Radar however it is bundled with additional costs per transaction charges.

 Grow With, an Experienced Merchant of Record

is the largest merchant of record for global software companies, powering over a billion dollars in worldwide transactions each year.

Here's just a handful of the many reasons why that we've earned this reputation.

 We Have Decades of Expertise

Established in 2005, we have two decades of experience with the ability to facilitate global payments and have been a component of the SaaS market as it has expanded.

Because of this, our team is well-versed in the complexity selling digital products as well as software, such as the management of subscriptions and the nuances that go with it.

 We're backed by Great Investors

You don't need to worry about the possibility of being reliable or profitable. With our years of experience, we also offer the security that comes with being backed by a high-performing, reputable investment firm.

With the help of Accel-KKR, you can access the funds and resources to help scale your business with online payments as well as providing superior corporate, privacy, and security oversight.

 We Grow When You Grow

Our long-standing presence of experience in the worldwide payment platform business has enabled to grow over time however, this increase has occurred thanks to our wonderful customers.

This is due to two factors as we use a revenue-sharing model, and also because we're a business Partner who is eager to help grow your business.

 1. Makes Money When You Make Cash

With's revenue sharing system that we use, we earn money whenever you make. In the event that your client completes a purchase We charge a modest commission fee on that transaction.

If you're not doing any business, we're not charging the commission.

Our team of experts will work together to come up with simple, flat-rate pricing based on your volume of transactions as well as the time. The price includes the features of our platform and tools.

2. We Want to be Your Business Partner. Not Your Payments Solutions

Stardock was able to make the transition to SaaS subscriptions due to the ready-to-use existing subscription infrastructure, but they were also aware of the investments that we were putting in our own platform in order to develop new features and products.

This helped Brad Sams of Stardock feel confident in his partnership with Stardock , because he could see that we were there to last. "Because the more successful we are, the better is going to do. It's important to ensure everyone is winning and everything's right."

" I was following that road that was a continuous investment, not just taking a pay check every month, and not doing anything."

 - Brad Sams, Stardock

TestDome is also happy with 's support which ranges all the way from helping with issues for buyers as well as chargebacks right up to the top of the company and our CEO.

 Award-Winning Customer Support and Customer Success

The exceptional level of support and service has not just been acknowledged by our clients, it's also recognized in our business.

We don't just say we're looking to become partners, we set out to show it.

 Our hands-on Migration Team Strives for Your Success

support isn't only there for you after you've onboarded -- we want to ensure you get started on our payments platform as quickly and effortlessly as you can.

Our hands-on implementation team comprised of high-performing sales engineers is an expert in 's pre-built web storefront solution, the flexible and extensive webhook API as well as other features. They'll help to make the transition seamless by integrating and migrating.

 Other Fantastic Features

Here are some additional great reasons for using :

  • It will be automatically compliant in compliance with VAT, sales tax as well as privacy laws around the world.
  • The company accepts the best 98% of payment methods which are accepted in 185 countries across the globe. It also accepts 21+ different languages.
  • You can customize seamless embedded or modal popup checkout experience on your site.
  • We make it easy to offer coupons, discounts, and dynamic price points for promotions.
  • Checkout can be streamlined to a single click with 1ClickPay.
  • There's more!

3 Other Digital River Options

These are the most common choices to look into in the case of evaluating Digital River competitors. Remember that none of these choices are merchants of record, so you may need to supplement their services, either internally or with other vendors or products.

 Stripe

Screenshot of Digital River alternative Stripe's homepage, with a colorful red, purple, and yellow background, large black text on the left, and photos of a smartphone screen and an analytics dashboard on the right.

Stripe is a well-known credit card processor that lets businesses accept debit cards, credit cards, as well as mobile payments, with features such as:

  • Payment processing.
  • The user interface can be made customizable and comes with pre-built checkout processes.
  • Simple subscription management.
  • Online invoicing.

Perhaps you're thinking if it's an alternative for your company because it's widely used, and could seem at first like it has cheaper prices than the one that you're employing. However, that's due to the fact that Stripe isn't a merchant of record.

If you're trying to reduce the cost of transactions and you've got the size, expertise, time, and teams to support the numerous services you'll be losing when you switch from MoR to Stripe, this may be the best option for your company. But you'll need to cover the cost in services lost, including taxes compliance, fraud prevention as well as other. Stripe offers products that meet some of these needs However, these are an add-on that can increase your overall cost -therefore any initial savings might quickly disappear.

However, if you want to switch to Digital River to a business that is in the same class with the benefits and security that MoR gives, Stripe probably isn't the right Digital River competitor for you.

 Adyen

Screenshot of Digital River alternative Adyen's homepage, white background with black or green text and a close-up image of a small digital device and stylus.

Adyen describes itself as "end-to-end payment, data and financial management in one solution." The solutions it offers for payments and financial services offer features and products such as:

  • Online and in-person payments are all one system.
  • Revenue optimization with intelligent payment routing, which improves conversion rates.
  • Subscription management features like dunning automation.
  • Risk management with fraud prevention and detection.

Although Adyen has many of the benefits a merchant of record offers, you will still need to control your company accounts and merchant accounts.

PayPal to Business

Screenshot of Digital River alternative PayPal for Business' homepage, white background with black and blue text and photos of people and digital devices.

PayPal is a well-known digital account for making personal online transactions However, they also offer an option to process payments to small businesses. PayPal for Business can be used both in person and as an online shopping solution.

(SaaS businesses that use it can process payments using PayPal.)

Other benefits of PayPal for Business include but do not limit themselves to:

  • Integrated integrations to the most popular web-based shopping carts (such as Shopify).
  • QR codes and POS devices and QR code.
  • Invoicing.
  • Protection against chargeback (only available for business accounts that have Advanced Credit and Debit Card payment).

Besides PayPal for Business, PayPal also offers an exclusive payment processor for SaaS called Braintree.

 How Can Help

Need a merchant of record to help you increase your sales internationally? is a full-stack, all-in-one payment system to SaaS software, video games and various many other companies that offer digital products.

Our services include VAT and sales tax calculation as well as collection and remittance Payment localization, regulation compliance; award-winning customer support, and much more!

Katie Stephan

Katie Stephan   Katie Stephan is the Senior Content Strategist for . Besides her extensive marketing experience as well, she holds an MFA in non-fiction creative writing and has served the communities she lives in as a college writing instructor.